So, have you found that compelling reason to do PhD? Bear in mind that the Doctorate is generally regarded as the highest academic degree that requires great patience and mental ability, especially technical and mathematical ability.

Sometimes your supervisor will request you to do some project of his/her interest, and most likely you'll say “Yes”. After one semester, he/she might ask you to change another topic of research because he/she cannot get the grant from MOSTI or RUGS. Happy? I don't think so. This is usually due to poor planning and other factors as well.

I am concerned about what happens to you and your proposal. What kinds of things are bothering you?

Tell us more about your:

(1) Field of research - motivation
(2) Problem statement - a contradiction, question, complaint, or need
(3) Performance Criteria - requirements that any proposed solution to the problem must fulfill
(4) Prior research - what has been done to address the problem and achieve similar objectives in the past
(5) Objectives - the baseline by which the success or failure of the task will be evaluated
(6) Scope of Work - the scope in terms of sub-engineering disciplines or technical areas of a research

Since your feedback is very limited, I can only tell you the sources of research ideas are virtually endless. They range from casual observation to systematic research. However, they can be seen as falling into three broad categories: experience, theory, and applied issues.

Experience: Your everyday experience and observations of what goes on around you is a rich source of research ideas. Some of these observations may be unsystematic and informal. For example, after reading a newspaper article about a gun rampage leaving 28 dead, including 20 schoolchildren, you may begin to wonder how parents and schoolteachers who have to live with the fear of mass killing every day cope.

Theory: Theories can lead to the development of research questions in two ways. First, a theory allows you to predict the behavior expected under new combinations of variables. The second way that theory can generate research ideas arises when two or more alternative theories account for the same initial observations. This situation may provide a fascinating opportunity to pit the different interpretations against one another.

Applied Issues: Often research ideas arise from the need to solve practical problems. Applied research is problem oriented whereas basic research is aimed toward building basic knowledge about phenomena. You might design an applied research study to develop interventions to help people cope with mass killing. Of course, before you can design any intervention, you must first know something about how people react to mass killing.

GREAT! What kind of PhD program do you intend to take?

I can imagine that, and I feel sorry for you.

To shift your gears FORWARD to study mode, you must have the Right Attitude, Right Practice, & Right Understanding.

Naturally, I can tell by your writing that you are feeling really upset about this. However, I might be missing something here because I’m not sure if I understand what you are saying. But I am not out to disrespect you, because it almost sounded that people who do their PhDs directly after their degrees are horrible lecturers. And I know you would like to resolve this in a way that is fair to the students. Could it be another reason that lead to the student complaints? It would really help me, if you could tell me what the students had complained, so I can understand better.

In this thread alone, I’m sure you find everyone is different, and naturally, people choose to get a PhD for a variety of reasons, including:

• for the prerequisite to becoming a professor
• for future professional opportunities
• for the delay of getting a job
• for the pursuit of knowledge
• for fear of “the real world”
• for the love of research
• for status and acclaim
• for an ego boost

As the PhD students work their way through the settling in process, they will identify their goals and objectives in the big picture and then break things down into several tasks. The research competency can be categorized into Mechanisms and Procedure that are necessary to achieve the objectives of the tasks and the experiments. You can imagine children connecting the dots, dot-to-dot on the dot pictures, where the mechanisms are the dots, and the procedure is the steps the children take to join the dots correctly to complete the big picture.

MECHANISMS
You probably already know that designing a suitable experiment to test a hypothesis takes ingenuity and skill. Whether the experiment requires sophisticated equipment or not, there are a number of features that are common to all well-designed experiments and the students should know about this:

(1) Discrimination between different hypotheses
(2) Replicating the results
(3) Controls of variables
(4) Methods of measurement
(5) Blinding conscious and unconscious bias
(6) Accuracy and precision

PROCEDURE
In order to conduct an experiment to test each hypothesis, the students need to make a list of the things they will need to do to answer each issue. And this list they create will be their experimental procedure. This procedure should include the appropriate methodologies, technologies and equipment. For some types of experiment, a ‘control’ will be required to act as a reference.

(1) Prepare the materials & equipment
(2) Record the data
(3) Record the observations
(4) Analyze the raw data
(5) Draw conclusions

If they don’t yet know what exact area of research they want to pursue, or if their interests are not specific or focused enough, then they probably aren’t ready for PhD programs. If they want to pursue doctorates but are not keen on research, there are some other options available. But telling PhD candidates to write their research interests on papers will generally cause them to think critically about what they want to study and help make their ideas more concrete.

Sometimes we don’t find novelty features and unobviousness in their projects at all. Probably part of the overwhelming nature of the PhD degree is that there are many things to do at once, but if they learn to direct their efforts rather than get sidetracked and try to undertake too many projects at the same time, they can streamline the process and make their life as doctoral students much easier.

One of the things that would help them get through the PhD process more easily would have been a better understanding of what were expected of them. Although the only research they are absolutely required to complete in order to receive the doctorate is their dissertation, there is an implicit (and sometimes explicit) expectation that they must have at least a couple of publications before graduating with their doctorates.

Part of being a successful lecturer is being resourceful, especially when it comes to finding information or learning how to accomplish important things, whether in teaching or doing research. The same applies to the students. One of the Right Practice is to reason your way through a problem. People are confronted by problems every day and everything from coming up with a meaningful keynote presentation at work to a PC malfunctioned at home. How they think their way through those problems is what matters and will largely determine their level of success.

I hope I can understand the predicament you were in. We all have preferences & priorities. Moreover, there will always be some things that we will consider to be better than others. Most of us have opinions about what other people should do to take responsibility to do a good job, to get out of a difficult situation, or to make their life better.

Nevertheless, I’m sure you want the best for the people you care about most. But they can’t always see the benefits or the way of life that will come from your experience. In the end, they might not be the best things for yourself, let alone another. So let others do what they think is right for themselves. They maybe bad choices but that’s how people learn. Let them make their mistakes. And focus on learning from your own. Allow another to be, and they’ll want to be around you, charmed by your positive qualities.

It is not often a person is made to be accepted for who they are, when it comes to conflict. Most people shy away from conflict because they hate fighting. Sometimes, we get overwhelmed with all this and we want to stop. And you’ll probably end up feeling frustrated and resentful towards your “horrible” colleagues and some direct-to-PhD students. Conflict needs to be managed before it becomes a destructive force to both mental and physical.

Do you know that a lot can be learned from martial arts when it comes to handling conflict? T’ai chi & Aikido are by far the most useful and effective responses to an attack; they create a win-win situation. Martial artists understand the importance of taking action early. If they detect conflict in the air, they don’t become aggressive or avoid it. They stay calm and assertive. They take time to understand the real cause of the situation. They see the other person’s point of view. And they find an acceptable way forward. Simply put, they compromise!

However, make no mistake as compromise isn’t about lowering your standards or giving up your values for others. It’s about reducing your fruitless demands or changing your opinion to reach an amicable agreement. Compromise is wrong when it means sacrificing a principle. We all have standards. And if our minimum level isn’t met, it’s going to lead to disharmony. So strike the right balance! Take time to think the problem through and plan a constructive way to handle the situation. Go on, help yourself but don’t compromise yourself.

Hi Ron,

(1) What’s your dream job?

(2) What bothers you most about not having enough knowledge and exposure?

(3) Are you ever satisfied? Why or why not?

(4) How do you go about illuminating “blind spots” in your life?

Oh! Dr. Ivan is a lecturer in UniMAP?

Different education culture and society. Almost all answers are printed in the textbooks. Their primary objective is to score and pass with flying colors. “Black or white cat matters not as long as it can catch mice.”

There are many kinds of educators in the world.

The are things you don't do because you don't have a partner yet. Find the chemistry of love!

A PMP-certified Project Manager with doctorate degree can make a very handsome amount of money, you know.

Ir. Dr. Mui Kai Yin is one of the Vice Chairmen of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (Penang Branch), who has the PMP credential.

OK! Good luck with PMP journey. Make sure you refer to the latest PMBOK® Guide, 5th Edition.

Would you tell us your field of specialization?

What kind of knowledge is that knowledge you have a thrill of excitement runs through your body?

Most knowledge can be acquired through autodidactism or self-directed learning via scientific articles, textbooks, media reports, pseudoscientific writings, or advertisements. However, some new and promising knowledge can only be acquired, verified and validated through research, countless hours of experiments, and repeated numerical analysis.

PhD programs are generally tailor-made for students who plan to pursue an academic research career, though some students hope to become practitioners in their chosen field. The bottom line is, make sure the content of the PhD program intrinsically interest you for the next 3 years and above.

Sempai, don't say you are useless. You've helped many young people in the Biotech forum.

Please reclaim your self-esteem. Anyhow, thank you for sharing your experience.

Hi Sempai,

Is it worth pursuing a Master’s Degree?

• Master of Science (MSc)

• Master of Engineering (MEng)

• Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Do you know that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity makes you smaller?

If you want make more money than most professions, start your own business and innovate the ABCD Way!

A :: Apple
B :: Baidu
C :: Coca-cola
D :: Digi (ranked #100 in Forbes' World's Most Innovative Companies)

Setbacks in the lab (as well as in life) are inevitable, and no different from the working life of most people. In fact, enlightened adults learn how to deal with them that will turn a setback into an opportunity for growth. If you think of setbacks as not being failures, mistakes, or wrong turns, but rather a chance to learn and grow, you will be much better equipped to put yourself back on the right track in a positive way.

Motivating people is Blofeld’s doctoral forte.

Why do you ask?